As AI Data Centers Target the Water-Scarce Borderlands, New Mexico Invests in Desalination
New Mexico will soon host a massive new data center backed by Oracle and OpenAI. Known as Project Jupiter, it was approved September 19 by the Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners in a 4–1 vote. The “hyperscale” complex will be located just north of the Santa Teresa port of entry, less than 10 miles from El Paso, Texas.
The complex will be part of Project Stargate, the companies’ initiative to build a series of data centers for AI with a combined capacity 10 gigawatts. If Project Jupiter is built to its planned capacity of 700 to 900 megawatts, it would exceed Nevada’s Citadel, currently the highest-capacity data center in the United States.
Locals learned of the $165 billion project just one month before the county approved it. During the debate before the vote, proponents touted the project as a major opportunity for economic development, while opponents raised concerns about its water and energy use, as well as the rushed approval process.
From 2017 to 2024, the number of data centers in the U.S. increased from 318 to 5,208. These complexes are notorious for their high water and energy consumption, and New Mexico’s resources are already strained. So where will the water for Project Jupiter come from?
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